Guidelines

Derived from the input of States, civil society, international organizations and private sector actors, these voluntary and non-binding Guidelines to Protect Migrants in Countries Experiencing Conflict or Natural Disaster reflect the outcome of the MICIC Initiative.

Repository of practices

Cities thrive because of their vibrant and diverse communities. In many migrant communities, factors such as culture, language, immigration status, and community isolation contribute to higher levels of vulnerability to the effects of emergencies. Disseminating relevant, culturally-appropriate emergency preparedness information to migrant populations is critical to building resilience. Effective emergency management in urban areas depends on creating links to these communities and offering the tools and information they need to be prepared.

In 2014 Mexico established its first public policy on migration, in which civil society actors, academics, governmental authorities and the migrants themselves played a key role in identifying the needs to be addressed and the rights to be upheld under the new policy.

Pretoria 16 May 2017 – Representatives of National Disaster Risk Management, Civil Protection and Emergency Management institutions from Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) member states and other key stakeholders discussed practical approaches to include migrants in emergency preparedness, response and recovery during a two-day workshop on 15-16 May in Pretoria, South Africa.

Kampala, Uganda - May 14th: In a continent characterized by a long history of cross-border migration, migrants’ specific sets of vulnerabilities pose particular challenges to any crisis preparedness, response and recovery mechanisms. Factors such as language, migration status, isolation, limited social networks and means, and lack of appropriate services all add on to migrants’ vulnerability in a country experiencing crisis.

Humanitarian agencies now need to reach larger numbers of migrants, in more complex emergencies, than ever before. In much of the media coverage of these responses, social media, apps and web-enabled innovations are touted as possible solutions to these overwhelming needs. Mainstream and specialist sources both report on the use of social media in emergencies - for example, in the Philippines and Indonesia, where Twitter was reportedly used by communities to manage their responses to Typhoon Megi and the Mount Merapi volcano eruption.

Ten-year-old Charlie sat in the front row and refused all invitations to join the kids’ corner. A son of a migrant agricultural worker from southern Mexico, Charlie began attending LISTOS’ class with his mother. He was engaged, interested and eagerly participated in class activities. While Charlie was too young to be considered an “official student” of the LISTOS training, that did not discourage him from being present each session.

The ongoing conflict in Yemen has induced large-scale displacement of the Yemeni population, and affected thousands of migrants in the country or those arriving to the shores of Yemen albeit of the ongoing conflict. Although the civil war has ravaged Yemen since 2015, the country still receives a monthly average of 10,000 irregular migrants from the Horn of Africa.